Infectious diseases remain amongst leading causes of death in people aged 65 years and older; therefore, much research is focused on determining the immune components that contribute to age-dependent increased susceptibility to, and increased mortality from, infections. CD8⁺ T cells are critical for clearing intracellular pathogens through production of cytokines and direct killing of infected cells. Age-dependent CD8⁺ T cell alterations have been described, including decreased numbers of naïve CD8⁺ T cell precursors and decreased numbers and function during infection. This dissertation explores the mechanisms contributing to these changes. First, we demonstrated that multiple mechanisms contribute to changes in the CD8⁺ T cell pool with age. CD8⁺ T cells from unimmunized T cell receptor transgenic (TCRTg) old mice undergo massive virtual memory (VM) conversion with age; both homeostatic proliferation and cross-reactivity may contribute to the generation and accumulation of VM cells with age. These VM cells exhibit an age-dependent replicative impairment to cognate antigen, which points to possible detrimental functional consequences due to changes in the overall T cell pool. Second, we evaluated the cell intrinsic contribution to the decreased old CD8⁺ T cell response. With in vitro stimulation, old CD8⁺ T cells exhibit decreased ability to enter into late cell divisions and decreased production of effector molecules. In addition, we found that old CD8⁺ T cells have decreased expression of the master transcription factor T-bet, which correlates to decreased effector function and terminal differentiation in vivo. Collectively, these results identify possible cell-intrinsic targets for improving CD8⁺ T cell immunity. Finally, we measured whether a Listera monocytogenes live vaccine model induces protective immune responses in old mice. We found that vaccination conferred little protection in old mice upon pathogen challenge. These results contrast with other vaccine models, which may allow for pinpointing both the vaccine and immune components required for generating strong protective immunity in the elderly. Collectively, this dissertation demonstrates that CD8⁺ T cell precursors, effector cells, and memory cells exhibit profound changes with, age and identifies both possible mechanisms contributing to these alterations as well as possible therapeutic/vaccine targets for improving immunity in the elderly.

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has global effects on the immune system. CD8+ T-cells, responsible for viral clearance and control, are dysfunctional for as yet unknown reasons. It is hypothesized that IL-7 signaling pathway deficiencies contribute to this impairment. Blood-derived CD8+ T-cells in chronic HCV mono- and HIV-HCV co-infection had lower IL-7-induced activation of STAT5 and production of Bcl-2, and lower proliferation in co-infection, compared to controls. Lower Bcl-2 production was also associated with increased fibrosis. These changes were independent of the IL-7 receptor α expression and suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 or 3 expression. Intrahepatic CD8+ T-cells in HCV-infection did not activate STAT5 above basal levels with cytokine stimulation and had lower Bcl-2 expression than blood-derived cells. In conclusion, bulk CD8+ T-cells were impaired in response to IL-7 and the IL-7 signaling pathway may be one mechanism by which CD8+ T-cells are impaired in chronic HCV infection.

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BACKGROUND:The memory response to LCMV in mice persists for months to years with only a small decrease in the number of epitope specific CD8 T cells. This long persistence is associated with resistance to lethal LCMV disease. In contrast to studies focused on the number and surface phenotype of the memory cells, relatively little attention has been paid to the diversity of TCR usage in these cells. CD8+ T cell responses with only a few clones of identical specificity are believed to be relatively ineffective, presumably due to the relative ease of virus escape. Thus, a broad polyclonal response is associated with an effective anti-viral CD8+ T cell response.RESULTS:In this paper we show that the primary CD8+ T cell response to the LCMV gp33-41 epitope is extremely diverse. Over time while the response remains robust in terms of the number of gp33-tetramer+ T cells, the diversity of the response becomes less so. Strikingly, by 26months after infection the response is dominated by a small number TCRbeta sequences. In addition, it is of note the gp33 specific CD8+ T cells sorted by high and low tetramer binding populations 15 and 22months after infection. High and low tetramer binding cells had equivalent diversity and were dominated by a small number of clones regardless of the time tested. A similar restricted distribution was seen in NP396 specific CD8+ T cells 26months after infection. The identical TCRVbeta sequences were found in both the tetramerhi and tetramerlo binding populations. Finally, we saw no evidence of public clones in the gp33-specific response. No CDR3 sequences were found in more than one mouse.CONCLUSIONS:These data show that following LCMV infection the CD8+ gp33-specific CD8 T cell response becomes highly restricted with enormous narrowing of the diversity. This narrowing of the repertoire could contribute to the progressively ineffective immune response seen in aging.

CD8 T lymphocytes are a crucial component of the adaptive immune system and mediate control of infections and malignancy, but also autoimmunity and allograft rejection. Given their central role in the immune system, CD8 T cell responses are tightly regulated by costimulatory signals and cytokines. Strategies targeting signals that are critical for T cell activation have been employed in a transplantation setting to impede alloreactive T cell responses and prevent graft rejection. The goal of my thesis is to understand how costimulatory signals and inflammation regulate alloreactive CD8 T cell responses and how to target these pathways to develop more effective tools to prevent graft rejection. Costimulation blockade is an effective approach to prolong allograft survival in murine and non-human primate models of transplantation and is an attractive alternative to immunosuppressants. I describe a novel murine anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody that prolongs skin allograft survival across major histocompatibility barriers and attenuates alloreactive CD8 T cell responses. I find that the pro-apoptotic proteins Fas and Bim function concurrently to regulate peripheral tolerance induction to allografts. Activation of the innate immune system by endogenous moIecules released during surgery or infections in transplant recipients can modulate T cell responses. However, the direct impact of inflammation on alloreactive CD8 T cell responses is not clear. Using a T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic mouse modeI, I demonstrate that inflammatory stimuli bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and the viral dsRNA mimetic poly(I:C) differentially regulate donor-reactive CD8 T cell responses by generating distinct cytokine milieus. Finally I demonstrate the role of pro-inflammatory cytokines stem cell factor (SCF), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-3 (IL-3) in improving human B cell development in humanized NOD-scid IL2Rγnull (NSG) mice.

Malaria affects 200 million people annually, resulting in 584,000 - 1,238,000 deaths. The majority of these deaths occur in children, less than 5 years of age, in sub-Saharan Africa and are due to cerebral malaria (CM), a neuropathology induced primarily by the species Plasmodium (P.) falciparum. The pathogenesis of CM remains poorly understood and the mechanisms involved in acquired protection against the syndrome in malaria-endemic regions are undefined. Utilising the well characterised P. berghei ANKA experimental infection model of cerebral malaria (ECM), results presented in this thesis show that the development of ECM is associated with the accumulation and arrest of pathogenic CD8+ T cells within the perivascular spaces of the brain. Accumulation of activated CD8+ T cells, without arrest, was observed in the perivascular spaces of the brains of mice infected with the non-ECM causing P. berghei NK65 strain. These data show that the behaviour of intracerebral CD8+ T cells specifies their pathogenic function during malaria infection. The development of ECM was associated with extensive disruption to the BBB, which developed in the absence of extensive CD8+ T cell-dependent endothelial cell apoptosis. We modified the ECM model, establishing an infection-drug cure strategy, to investigate the immunological basis of parasite exposure-induced resistance to ECM development. Three rounds of infection-drug cure promoted resistance to ECM, which was associated with reduced intracerebral expression of genes involved in defence response, regulation of apoptosis, chemotaxis, CTL activity, antigen processing and presentation and cell adhesion, compared with ECM susceptible mice. Additionally, CD8+ T cell activation was suppressed in exposure-induced resistant mice and was associated with the antibody dependent expansion of a splenic plasmacytoid DC population, with a regulatory phenotype. The infection-induced protection against ECM was critically dependent upon secreted antibody production. A long standing problem in studying the immune response to malaria infection has been the inability to track parasite-specific CD4+ T cell responses. To address this, we generated and validated new transgenic P. berghei parasites expressing the model antigen, ovalbumin (OVA), either in the parasite cytoplasm or on the parasitophorous vacuole membrane (PVM). We found that cellular location and expression level of the antigen influence the induction and magnitude of parasite-specific T-cell responses. These parasites thus provide knowledge on the factors that influence the recognition of parasite antigens by the immune system and represent useful tools to study the development and function of antigen-specific T-cell responses during malaria infection. The results in this thesis improve our understanding of the events that lead to the development of CM, and the host immune responses that develop following parasite exposure to protect against it. The results should contribute towards the rational development of adjunctive therapies and effective vaccines for human CM.

Due to the growing burden of malignancy and chronic infections, manipulating CD8+ T cell responses for clinical use has become an important goal for immunologists. CD8+ T cells have the unique capacity to recognize and kill tumor cells and intracellular pathogens. Thus far, failed or only minimally effective T cell vaccines against chronic pathogen infections and tumors have highlighted basic knowledge gaps for eliciting memory CD8+ T cell protection. Defining the immunological mechanisms that determine protective capacity and longevity in T cells will be critical to both therapeutic and prohylactic vaccine efficacy. My studies focus on strategies to manipulate effector and memory CD8+ T cell responses, including their mechanisms of action. Specifically, I show that dendritic cell (DC) immunization coupled with relatively early (days 1-3) or late (days 4-6) administration of enhanced IL-2 signals drive either effector or memory programs. DC + IL-2c administered 4-6 days post-DC transfer is shown to enhance Ag-specific effector CD8+ T cell responses; this approach is further explored in the context of a cancer immunotherapy, demonstrating effective control of tumor burden in multiple murine models of cancer. Temporal alterations of IL-2 signaling from day 4-6 to day 1-3 post-DC immunization is shown to increase memory potential and memory CD8+ T cell numbers long-term. Additional studies reveal CTLA-4-mediated down-regulation of B7-ligands on DCs after IL-2c treatment, demonstrating that weaker or more transient signaling through the CD28-B7 axis may favor memory CD8+ T cell programs. My work contributes valuable concepts in memory CD8 T cell generation to develop T cell vaccines that are both safe and predictable.

Infection with Plasmodium species leads to nearly 400,000 deaths a year despite widespread use of mosquito bed nets, insecticides, and anti-malarial drugs. To date, there is not a licensed vaccine capable of providing complete protection from Plasmodium infection to vaccinees. Whole parasite vaccination of humans and rodents can achieve complete protection in vaccines, but the dose of sporozoites, number of administrations, and production concerns in generating these types of vaccines will likely prevent these approaches from achieving worldwide use. However, the protective immunological responses against Plasmodium parasites engendered by these vaccination approaches can be studied and aid in the development of advanced subunit vaccines against Plasmodium. Using rodent models of malaria to elucidate the features of protective immunity engendered by whole parasite vaccination, it has been repeatedly shown that CD8 T cell responses directed against liver-stage parasite antigens can provide complete protection with some contribution by CD4 T cells and antibody responses depending on the model system studied. However, the quantatitive and qualitative requirements for CD8 T cell immunity against Plasmodium remains largely undefined. To enhance our understanding of how to generate protective immunity against Plasmodium, I have utilized rodent models of malaria to study the superior protection afforded from single-dose vaccination with virulent sporozoites administered under prophylatic chloroquine-cover, referred to as chemoprophylaxis sporozoites (CPS) vaccination, compared to the well-studied approach of administering radiation-attenuated Plasmodium sporozoites (RAS). RAS vaccination has long been considered the “gold standard” in vaccination due the ability of RAS vaccination to engender complete protection following sporozoite challenge of vaccinated humans and rodents. However, CPS vaccination is arguably a superior vaccination approach since it can achieve protection through less vaccine administrations relative to RAS vaccination, but the immunological basis of this enhanced CPS vaccine-induced immune response was unclear. In my study, I utilized a stringent host/parasite model to find that C57Bl/6 mice administered CPS vaccination with P. yoelii sporozoites elicit substantially higher parasite-specific CD8 T cell responses than RAS vaccination, but CPS-induced CD8 T cells were not necessary for protection following liver-stage sporozoite or blood-stage parasite challenge. CPS vaccination resulted in a low grade, transient parasitemia shortly following cessation of chloroquine treatment, which lead to the generation of potent antibody responses to blood-stage parasites; this blood-stage parasite-specific antibody response correlated with sterilizing protection in sporozoite challenged CPS-vaccinated mice. Therefore, my data provide a mechanistic basis for enhanced protective immunity elicited by single-dose CPS vaccination in a rodent model that is independent of CD8 T cells. The other portion of my work examines how CD8 T cell specificity impacts protective capacity against Plasmodium. I show that robust CD8 T cell responses of similar phenotype are mounted following prime-boost immunization against three novel Plasmodium berghei protein-derived epitopes in addition to a previously described protective, immunodominant epitope. I show that only CD8 T cells specific to sporozoite surface-expressed protein-derived epitopes, but not the intracellular protein-derived epitopes, are efficiently recognized by sporozoite-infected hepatocytes in vitro. These results suggest that antigenic targets must be efficiently presented by infected hepatocytes for CD8 T cells to eliminate liver-stage Plasmodium infection and proteins expressed on the surface of sporozoites may be good target antigens for protective CD8 T cells. Collectively, my work highlights the ability to generate protective CD8 T cell independent and dependent immunity against Plasmodium infections, whether achieved through potent blood-stage-specific antibody responses, or via numerically large monospecific CD8 T cell responses that target parasite antigens that are efficiently presented during liver-stage infection. These studies are relevant in understanding how to efficiency engender protective immunity against Plasmodium, and could aid in the advancement of subunit vaccination approaches that generate immunity through the priming of responses from multiple arms of the immune response, targeting both the liver- and blood-stages of Plasmodium.

The increasing threat of epidemic and pandemic influenza underscore the need to better-understand the immune response to influenza virus infections and to better understand the factors that contribute to the clearance of virus without complications of immunopathology. A hallmark of the adaptive immune response to primary influenza virus infections is the induction of influenza-specific CD8+ T cell responses. These T cells target and kill influenza-infected epithelial cells in the airway, thereby clearing the virus and allowing recovery of the infected host. Recent reports demonstrated that CD8+ T cells express TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) after influenza virus infection. While roles for perforin/granzyme and Fas:FasL interactions in clearing influenza virus infections had been established, little was known about the role of TRAIL in the CD8+ T cell responses to influenza virus infection. We hypothesized that influenza-specific CD8+ T cells would express TRAIL after influenza infection and could utilize TRAIL to induce the apoptosis of virally-infected cells. We discovered that CD8+ T cells do express TRAIL after influenza infection, and that this expression occurs in an influenza-specific fashion. Further, we demonstrated that these influenza-specific CD8+ T cells utilize this TRAIL to kill virally infected cells and protect the host from death, while T cells lacking TRAIL were unable to kill targets as efficiently and provided reduced protection. These data supported our hypothesis that CD8+ T cells utilize TRAIL to kill infected cells. Unexpectedly, when we increased the initial viral inoculum, the pulmonary cytotoxicity of T cells in TRAIL-/- mice was increased compared to those in TRAIL+/+ mice. Investigation of this phenomenon revealed that changes in cytotoxicity correlated not with changes in effector molecule expression on the T cells, but with increased recruitment of T cells to the lung. T cell recruitment to the lungs of TRAIL-/- mice was dependent on CCR5 and CXCR3, and likely the result of aberrant expression of MIG and MIP-1α in the lungs. Together, these data suggest that TRAIL expression contributes not only to T cell cytotoxicity, but also to the regulation of chemokine expression and associated cell recruitment after influenza virus infections. To confirm the relevance of our animal model to the study of human disease, we examined the potential role for TRAIL in the human immune response to infection. We determined that in vitro influenza infection stimulates upregulation of functional TRAIL on the surface of CD3+, CD14+, CD19+, and CD56+ PBMC populations. This expression was not caused by infection of the cells, but by interferon produced as a result of the infection. Infected (TRAIL-expressing) PBMCs killed influenza-infected lung epithelial cells, revealing that influenza infection sensitizes epithelial cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Surprisingly, blocking TRAIL signaling, but not FasL signaling, was able to abrogate this killing of infected epithelial cells. Together, these data support a role for TRAIL in the human immune response to influenza virus infections. Considered as a whole, the data from these studies suggest an additional, previously-unappreciated mechanism by which CD8+ T cells can kill virally infected cells, TRAIL. They also suggest additional, previously-unappreciated roles for TRAIL in immune responses: in helping clear virally infected cells after infections and in helping control cytokine/chemokine expression, and thus the immune response, after virus infection.

Immune protection wanes during aging. This is evidenced by increased morbidity and mortality from infectious disease in aged individuals. As the aging population continues to increase worldwide, it will become increasingly important to determine both causes and therapeutic strategies for defects in the aged immune response. In particular, CD8 T cells have been shown to be highly susceptible to age-related defects. Recently, metabolic pathways have been implicated as critical factors in T cell fate decisions during immune responses. Of note, metabolic pathways are also considered primary determinants of lifespan in mammals. Therefore, we hypothesized that metabolic manipulations to extend lifespan would have significant effects on the aging immune system and protection during infection. In particular, we investigated the impact of rapamycin (rapa), both acute and chronic treatment regimens, on adult and old mice. Specifically, we tested how T cell development, peripheral homeostasis, and effector immunity became altered during treatment. We made side-by-side comparisons in calorically restricted (CR) old mice as a gold standard model of longevity extension. Importantly, both of these interventions have been reported to benefit immune function and extend lifespan in mice. However, our data strongly indicate that both rapa and CR induce distinct but deleterious consequences to overall immunity in mice. We conclude that neither rapa nor CR may be ideal candidates for extending lifespan in humans.